Local News

Teens from Las Vegas and the surrounding areas will have the opportunity to mingle and dance with their same-aged peers this evening.

From 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday at the Abe Montoya Recreation Center a Cinco de Mayo Teen Dance will be held as part of an effort to provide additional activities for the youth in the area.

Lucas Sanchez, a youth coordinator at the center, said he hopes the dance will bring in students from the surrounding areas as well. He said the center invited teens from Wagon Mound, Springer, Mora, Pecos and Las Vegas to the dance.

BOSTON — Just hours before one of the Boston Marathon suspects and his brother allegedly gunned down a campus police officer, authorities say he exchanged a series of text messages with a friend who’d become suspicious after seeing what looked like a familiar face being flashed on television.

Dias Kadyrbayev, a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, texted his college buddy Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, saying he looked like one of the bombing suspects.

SANTA FE — Gov. Susana Martinez says she’s forming a group to recommend improvements in New Mexico’s child abuse laws.
The Republican governor, who is a former prosecutor, made the announcement Wednesday to mark the end of Child Abuse Prevention Month.

MORA — In a split vote on Monday, the Mora County Commission approved a community water rights and self-government ordinance, becoming the first county in the United States to permanently ban oil and gas drilling.

Roughly half an hour after the vote, the Pennsylvania-based Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which helped draft the ordinance, touted the victory in a news release.

The Mora County Commission voted last week to hire Roger Gonzales as interim county manager for two months.

Gonzales replaces Thomas Sanchez who was terminated days after Gov. Susana Martinez signed a capital outlay bill that included $1.85 million for the incomplete county complex.

Gonzales, a native of the LeDoux area, formerly served as Mora School’s chief operations officer. In April of last year the state Public Education Department yanked Gonzales’ business license amid concerns of misspending of money.

Former day care operator and now convicted sex offender, Edward Quintana, 72, pleaded guilty Monday to attempted rape charges involving a young female family member back in 1995 and now faces up to three years in prison when sentenced.

Kathryn Wasserman Davis, a philanthropist and noted “visionary for peace” whose generosity has touched dozens of United World College students, died last Tuesday at the age of 106.

An inspiration to all who knew her, Kathryn kayaked, swam, painted, traveled, and played a fierce game of croquet well into her 90s. This year, she told UWC-USA President Lisa Darling that her goal was to make a new friend everyday — and that friend should be as committed to peace as she was.

Two men goofing around with homemade bottle bombs found themselves behind bars after police heard two explosions in the vicinity of Rodriguez Park just after midnight on Friday.

Las Vegas residents Zachary Garza, 20, of the 500 block of Hightower, and Mario Urioste, 19, of the 400 block of Rita Street, were arrested and charged with possession of an explosive or incendiary device and ordered held on $5,000 cash bonds following their arraignment in San Miguel Magistrate Court on Friday, according to court records.